Maggie Gallagher On the False Divide Between the Tea Party and Social Conservatives

June 7, 2011 at 11:00 am

Last weekend NOM Chairman Maggie Gallagher was at the second annual Faith and Freedom conference. Alex Parker of U.S. News & World Reportcaught up with her to get her take on the conservative movement today:

Organized by former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, the event included a mix of culturally conservative speakers as well as famous fiscal conservative activists such as Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform.

And that’s OK for social conservatives. “We really have an economic crisis,” says Deal Hudson, an influential Catholic conservative activist who spoke at the conference. “I don’t have a problem with an appropriate amount of attention to that.”

Other activists pushed home the message of a common goal. “The divide between the Tea Party and the social conservatives is a false divide,” says Maggie Gallagher, chairwoman of the National Organization for Marriage. “They all have a vision of American, and they’re concerned that it’s being overturned by elites.”